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Jul 26, 2013

The Rehabilitation of Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio is a smart man. Articulate, soft-spoken, opportunistic and reasonably photogenic to appear on national TV where he could spew his conservative positions without fear of appearing to be an ideologue. In many ways, he reminds one of a Barack Obama on the national stage soon after he spoke at the DNC in 2004.

Polished. And if he were a Democrat, he'd be in the reckoning for a future White House run. No, not like the one he is fooled into believing is his destiny within the GOP. Or at least was, after his much heralded meteoric rise to the Senate with a win over the grizzled veteran Crist, and his positioning as the GOP minority answer to Obama.

Following the 11-6 disaster for Romney, Rubio wasted no time in lining up his ducks. He refused to play the errand boy for Jim DeMint his supposed mentor, who wanted him to lead some sort of a Tea Bagger caucus in the Senate, and instead started exploring his Presidential run.

So far, so good.Then he realized that he needed a signature legislation. One that could be called "The Rubio Bill" from which to launch his platform. The Dream Act that had been languishing in Congress was to be it. He also wanted to show that he was different than the other tea baggers and "work across the aisle" to reform our broken immigration system.

That's when the romance ended. Baggers were furious at the Messican giving away free citizenships to illegals. Little did Rubio realize that he had been played. The GOP these days has room for no one else but white men. Angry white men. Angry, white, bigoted men. They were never going to let him be President. So as long as he played lapdog to DeMint, they were OK.

And DeMint? He headed over to the Heritage Foundation which released a study attacking the Rubio+seven others plan for reform. Of course, that the study was debunked only made Rubio more of a traitor. Tea Baggers were soon vowing to defeat him in 2016, because how dare he!

Mentor and his lapdog fight!
Mentor and his lapdog fight!

But fear not, Rubio is a smart guy. All he needs is a signature bill. This time, he'll have one. One on abortion. Something that makes abortion illegal at conception. Or earlier.

That should be a no-brainer. I suppose he can add another repeal of Obamacare to it, and he'd have regained street cred with the baggers. DeMint will forgive him, and life will go on.

All that will remain is for the gang-of-eight proposal to die a slow, quiet death and all will be forgiven. It'd help if Rubio were to abandon his own bill with "I was misled by the treachery of the black guy" for baggers do not hate him as much as they hate the black guy in the White House.